We provide early childhood educators and services with an Early Years teaching program
Founded on lived experience and a driving desire to prevent young people from developing mental health problems
With children as our core focus, together with a team of psychologists, researchers and early childhood service owners, directors and educators we have developed an evidence-based comprehensive, common language mental health and wellbeing approach.
The Positive Living Skills Early Childhood Wellbeing and Primary School Wellbeing Program are both available as quality-assured programs in the NSW Department of Education’s Student Wellbeing external programs catalogue in the themes of:
1. Resilience
2. Behaviour, and
3. Sense of Belonging
The Positive Living Skills Wellbeing programs have been independently reviewed and are listed in the ‘Be You’ Programs Directory.
They meet the minimum evidence requirements set by Be You and have been awarded a rating for evidence and implementation.
The Positive Living Skills program is showcased in the NSW Mental Health commission’s Living Well Strategic plan for mental health reform in NSW in the Getting in Earlier domain.
The Positive Living Skills program has also met the requirements for inclusion in The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)'s Wellbeing Program guide, supporting the social, psychological and physical wellbeing of students.
The Early Childhood sector is under pressure
%
30
Over 75% of educators strongly agree that turnover negatively impacts how children learn & develop as well as their emotional wellbeing more broadly.
50
%
82% of current educators say that in the past month they ‘always’ or ‘often’ felt rushed when performing key caring and/or educational tasks.
73
%
Services are already understaffed, and providers are reporting having to cap new enrolments because they can’t find enough staff.
*Report Exhausted, undervalued and leaving: the crisis in early education
Positive Living Skills is proud to incorporate Key Word Sign in our approach.
Key Word Sign resources are included in the PLS Early Childhood Wellbeing program subscription to support educators' approach to inclusion for all children.
Key Word Sign Australia is proudly brought to you by Scope Aust.
The Key Word Sign line drawings by Key Word Sign Australia (Victoria). Used with permission.
For more information about Key Word Sign visit https://kwsa.org.au/
We love supporting educators:
Flexible resource pool of activities, stories, songs, relaxation audios and more
Evidence based program mapped to principles, practices and learning outcomes of the EYLF V2.0
Equipping educators with common sense common language mental health education resources
Professional Development included focused on educator wellbeing confidence capacity and communication skills
The evidence based PLS program is specifically designed to support educators to engage children based on the principles practices and learning outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0
Possa Bill
Possa Bill is the PLS mascot!
He has a growth mindset; he stands for kindness, confidence, peer support, and more.
Possa Bill supports educators to engage and connect with children at group or playtime or at any time during the day. Possa Bill features in many PLS learning experience activities, and the Possa Bill role play options make it super easy for educators to personalise or extend the learning.
Our approach...
What if we taught children about their minds and how their thoughts and feelings interact to affect their behaviours and outcomes?
What if we taught children about appreciation and gratitude, kindness and empathy and respect for self and others and that life is a rollercoaster of events and emotions?
What if services could support educator capacity with confidence building pre-prepared EYLF resources?
Content is based on the concepts of emotional intelligence, focus, appreciation, relaxation, cooperation, growth mindset and communication so that children can develop healthy self esteem and positive relationships with themselves and others.
Teaching PLS concepts
Through Repetition
and Practice
Positive Living Skills become habitual
What's included:
✓ 49 flexible play-based learning experiences
mapped to EYLF
✓ Relaxation audios, songs and posters
✓ Possa Bill animation stories
✓ Searchable comprehensive resource library
✓ Tips for transitions and school readiness
✓ Activities for 0-3 Years for all concepts
✓ Shareable family newsletters for the 6 concepts
✓Free mental wellbeing resources to share with families via the 'PLS Family Link Online Hub'
✓ 3 x 'on-demand' educator PD sessions on Focus, Leadership and Self-Care
✓Key Word Sign Concept flash cards
✓ A welcome pack including: PB puppet, posters, happy highlight clickers, KWS flash cards, Wellbeing Affirmation cards and more
Would you like more information?
Book a chat with Catherine Shaw, the Founder of the Positive Living Skills Initiative.
During the personal chat, we can further explore how the program could best support your educators, you'll learn more about the features and how other services are implementing PLS in their services.